Influence of chromium modification on the properties of MnOx-FeOx catalysts for the low-temperature selective catalytic reduction of NO by NH3

Catalytic properties of MnO_x-FeO_x complex oxide (hereafter denoted as Mn-Fe) catalysts modified with different loadings of chromium oxide were investigated by using the combination of physico-chemical techniques, such as N₂ physisorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (in situ FT-IR) and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and their catalytic activities were evaluated with the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO_x by NH₃. It was found that with the addition of Cr, more NO could be removed in the low-temperature window (below 120 °C). Among the tested catalysts, Mn-Fe-Cr (2 : 2 : 1) catalyst exhibited the best catalytic performance at 80 °C with the NO conversion higher than 90%. The combination of the reaction and characterization results indicated that (1) the strong interaction among tertiary metal oxides existed in the catalysts when Cr was appropriately added, which made the active components better dispersed with less agglomeration and sintering and the largest BET specific surface area could be obtained; (2) Cr improved the low-temperature reducibility of the catalyst and promoted the formation of the active intermediate (–NH⁺₃), which favored the low-temperature SCR reaction.